Public input wanted after teacher reportedly utters N-word in class
An emergency town hall meeting is giving people the opportunity to weigh in on how the community should respond to an incident which saw a Windsor teacher reportedly use a racist slur twice in front of students.
“There's a lot of anti-Black racism practised in all of the schools that is not dealt with in a way that leaves our children harmed in some ways,” said Leslie McCurdy, chair of the Black Council of Windsor-Essex.
Earlier this month, students spoke out after they said a teacher at Kennedy Collegiate said the N-word in class.
The teacher is said to have been expressing disapproval over the word's use in a song being played in the classroom by students.
According to students, the teacher used the word again during a separate meeting about the original incident.
“In terms of equitable treatment, the teacher should've been suspended for a day just like a student would have been suspended for a day,” said McCurdy.
The incident prompted the council to call an “emergency town hall” Saturday afternoon over Zoom where the public was invited to suggest next steps for how “people in power” and the general community should respond to the incident and seek accountability.
But, according to the council, the call-to action goes far beyond the incident at Kennedy Collegiate.
“It's a very complicated issue, the N-word, its historic use and the duality of the use that exists within the Black community and the fact that we in the Black community request that it not be used by anyone else in any way,” added McCurdy.
The Black Council is calling for the teacher to make a public apology and briefly step away from teaching to reflect on the impact of uttering the racial slur.
“Yes, Black people use the word sometimes, but we have received the same kind of cultural conditioning as everyone else,” said McCurdy.
“For any person who is non-melanated to say that word in any capacity is wrong.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
CRA no longer requiring 'bare trust' reporting in 2023 tax return
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
He didn't trust police but sought their help anyway. Two days later, he was dead
Jameek Lowery was among more than 330 Black people who died after police stopped them with tactics that aren’t supposed to be deadly, like physical restraint and use of stun guns, The Associated Press found.
Fluid in eye cells can 'boil' if you watch the eclipse without protection: expert
Millions of people in parts of Eastern and Atlantic Canada will be able to see the rare solar eclipse happening on April 8. But they should only look up if they have proper eye protection, experts say.
NEW More unauthorized products for skin, sexual enhancement, recalled: Here are the recalls of this week
Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency recalled various items this week, including torches, beef biltong and unauthorized products related to skin care and sexual enhancement.
Where is the worst place for allergy sufferers in Canada?
The spring allergy season has started early in many parts of Canada, with high levels of pollen in some cities already. Experts weigh in on which areas have it worse so far this season.
Do these exercises for core strength if you can't stomach doing planks
Planks are one of the most effective exercises for strengthening your midsection, as they target all of your major core muscles: the transverse abdominis, rectus abdominis, external obliques and internal obliques. Yet despite the popularity of various 10-minute plank challenges, planking is actually one of the most dreaded core exercises, according to many fitness experts.
Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
Polar ice is melting and changing Earth's rotation. It's messing with time itself
One day in the next couple of years, everyone in the world will lose a second of their time. Exactly when that will happen is being influenced by humans, according to a new study, as melting polar ice alters the Earth’s rotation and changes time itself.
The federal minimum wage is going up in April. Here's what you need to know
The federal minimum wage is set to increase next month. Here's what you need to know.